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The Creative Penn Podcast For Writers
My 2025 Creative And Business Goals With Joanna Penn
00:23:44
Happy New Year 2025! I love January and the opportunity to start afresh. I know it’s arbitrary in some ways, but I measure my life by what I create, and I also measure it in years. At the beginning of each year,
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Joanna Penn
Welcome to the Creative Pen Podcast. I'm Joanna Penn, thriller author and creative entrepreneur, bringing you interviews, inspiration and information on writing, craft and creative business. You can find the episode show notes, your free author blueprint and lots more@thecreativepenn.com and that's Pen with a double N. And here's the show. Hello creatives. I'm Johanna Penn and this is episode number 788 of the podcast and it is Monday 30th December 2024 as I record this but it is going out in 2025, so happy new Year and I wish you and your family all the best for the year ahead. In today's show I'm sharing my goals for 2025 which helps me stay accountable. I've been doing this for years now and accountable to myself and I hope you find it interesting and it might spark some ideas for your goals. Right, let's get into 2025. My 2025 creative and business goals. So I love January and the opportunity to start afresh and I know it is arbitrary in many ways, but I measure my life by what I create and I also measure it in years. So 2024 was a year of consolidation as I got my creative house in order and began to shift my creative and business processes. 2025 is going to be a year of personal and business change as I turn 50 and I'll be focusing on expanding the JF Pen side of things, using leverage as an overarching leverage. Make more of what I have. So yes, my overarching theme for 2025 is leverage, which can be defined as utilizing available resources, assets, tools and relationships to achieve more. So the famous quote by Greek mathematician Archimedes goes give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world. The idea is that you can achieve a lot as an individual if you use leverage. So here's an overview of some aspects and then I'll go into some more detail on my goals in the following a. Leverage the books I've written but not made the most of yet. So first of all, launch how to write nonfiction, the second edition everywhere. By the end of January 2025, work with my US agent, Renee Fountain to get a book deal for Blood Vintage or self publish. By the end of 2025, get my existing short stories into print, write an extra two exclusive stories and launch as a Kickstarter collection and then publish wide and get Catacomb into audiobook format. One of my failure goals from last year. B. Leverage my existing available assets to bring in more income, do a monthly book marketing plan and organize paid ad campaigns per month for revolving first books in series and my main earners. I've been pretty scattergun at this recently and so I just need to get organized and thankfully the AI tools are really good at helping organize this type of thing. You can literally just go on ChatGPT and say these are my books. Give me a plan, a marketing plan for the whole year year with these types of things involved and you can just delve deeper and deeper. So I'm doing that. I've already started it and just need to get organized. I also want to organize my Shopify stores or kind of reorganize them, make them more granular. That's creativepenbooks.com and jfpenbooks.com so the collections, which are groups of books essentially that you have specific links into them. I want to make more collections that make it easier for readers to find things they might want to buy. So at the moment my collections are just in things like the series. So on my fiction store there's arcane, action adventure series, that kind of thing. But unless you know that, how do you find it? So I'm going to try and make more collections that will be more surfaceable. I guess. I'm also going to reinvigorate my content marketing for JF Pen and make more of my booksandtravel page website with links back to my stores and do fiction specific content marketing with the aim of again surfacing more in the LLMs as generative AI search expands. I guess I'll get more into that in the year ahead, but what I am finding is that there are specific sites that really do turn up in ChatGPT and in Claude and in Google Gemini when you go looking for books. And I'm just doing most of my book discoverability now as in I find things to read on the LLMs. So yeah, I want to figure out how to do that. C Leverage AI Tools to achieve more as a one Person Business so I already use a lot of AI tools as part of my creative and business processes. But right now everything's really disjointed as I create in different places or I do different things in different places and then I kind of stitch it all together myself. 2025 brings the promise of AI agents where you give the AI agent a goal and it will plan a multi step process and then execute that plan on your behalf after your approval with as much interaction as you like along the way. So I'VE glimpsed this step by step planning process as part of Google Gemini Deep Research, which I've started using as part of my book research and also in marketing. The potential launch of OpenAI's operator, which is their AI agent system in early 2025 is also interesting one to keep an eye on. I'm primarily interested in using these tools for book marketing, which, let's face it, is the part we all want to outsource. There are tools which already have AI embedded within them and hopefully these will become easier to use in 2025. I would love meta ads and Amazon ads to have specialized agents we could use for book marketing, so fingers crossed on that. As I mentioned, I'm also researching how SEO search engine optimisation works for advertising to the LLMs. As generative search continues to disrupt old ways of getting traffic to websites. I still think content marketing is relevant and I'm far more interested in doing more of that rather than social media, so I'm going to look into that. I'll also do more visual media using Midjourney for images since that's still my favourite, but also Runway ML or Sora, which I still can't try because it's not available here in the uk, but certainly I can use Runway ML for video. I loved making my Blood Vintage book trailer and intend to make similar trailers this year for my first in series books and also the ones I'm pitching for film and TV. I have actually put the blood vintage one on IMDb which is the film and TV network that people use, so I want to put more videos on there. While I still intend to self narrate my non fiction and short stories, I am Interested in using 11 labs maybe 4 catacomb which has a male main character in order to maximize potential distribution and sales. I'm waiting for Findaway Voices by Spotify to allow ElevenLabs files which I think will happen in 2025. At the moment they only allow Google AI narration. Okay, let's get into some other more specific details. First up, how to write Non Fiction the second Edition January is all about the launch of this completely rewritten new edition. I will be on lots of different podcasts talking about the book and also doing lots of social media and paid ads to get the book moving. It is available now on creativepenbooks.com in all the usual formats as well as bundle deals and it is on pre order at the the other stores available everywhere on 31st January 2025. Also coming up soon, this is my 50th year. So in March 2025 I will be 50 and as we all know this is a big birthday. But I have now had a goal on my wall for many years. It says and there's a picture of it in the show notes. It says Create a body of work I'm proud of 50 books by 50 so I will let you know in March whether or not I've achieved that goal. But regardless, I'm still in the middle of creating a body of work I'm proud of. I'm certainly proud of what I've done so far, but I'm nowhere near the end. I'm not intending to stop anytime soon. I will be doing some birthday trips and celebrating and as ever I'll share some of that on Instagram and Facebook. Fpenauthor Also, I'm trying to share more pictures on X. So if you are on X at the Creative Pen, then a sort of bigger aspect that I'm thinking about JF Pen Bucket list and my books Blood Vintage, the Desert Book, the Tall Ship Book, the Gothic Cathedral Book. As ever, my working titles are not particularly creative, so I have three main bucket list things that I would like to achieve at some point but are essentially out of my control. So These are not 2025 goals, but I'm sharing them as context since they shape some of my business decisions, which some people have said to me they don't understand. Number one of my bucket list Get a traditional book deal in English. I've had deals in foreign languages before. Number two See one of my books and or stories as a film or on TV and not just as a YouTube trailer and 3 win an award for my fiction as JF Penn. I'm an award winning author as JF Penn for my memoir Pilgrimage and I have been a finalist for my fiction for the ITW Awards for Best Ebook Original for Destroyer of Worlds. So I'm almost there. But I still want to win an award specifically for my fiction. And not just any award. I have some particular ones in mind now. Again, I can't guarantee that any of these things will happen in my lifetime. The only thing I can do is create the conditions by which they are most likely to occur and keep putting myself and my books in the path of possible success. Since 2009, while I have written some standalones, I've been primarily writing fiction in series. My arcane action adventure thrillers, which is 13 books, my Brooke and Daniel crime thrillers, three books and my Matt Walker dark fantasy thrillers, three books that is a finished trilogy. By the way, I know fantasy readers love a finished trilogy. Now, writing in series is a key pillar of the indie author business model. Essentially write books in a series and promote the first in series with free or cheap ebook or price promotions plus bundle deals upsells, that kind of thing. But series books are not so well positioned for my three bucket list items above. For example, very difficult to enter book 17 of a series into an award. It's just generally there are just lots of things that the series readers really enjoy. So often it's standalone books that do that kind of thing. Standalones are easier to pitch for these bucket list items, which is why I'm changing my strategy in terms of what I'm writing and how I publish. I will certainly still write books in series, but I have a few projects that I'm focusing on this year. First of all, Blood Vintage. Obviously it's written, it's done, but it will either get a deal and if it gets a deal it will likely come out in 2026 or maybe even 27 depending on how that works. Or if nothing happens, I will self publish it myself by the end of 2025 and if I self publish it, I will also narrate the audiobook since the main character is a woman from my area in the southwest of England. I'm also intending to write the desert book and give it to my agent Renee to submit to publishers for a potential deal. Again, depending on timing passes on that. I'll also self publish that too. I've started that. I know what is going to at least open the book and I know the main big thing that happens. So that is coming up probably next Cab off the Rank. As such, I also have another standalone idea which I might get to depending on how the year goes. Working title the Tall Ship book and it is based on a trip I did back in 1999 when I sailed on the tall ship Sorin Larsen from Fiji to Vanuatu in the South Pacific and lots of things happened which I would love to turn into a book. I also still have all the research for the Gothic Cathedral book and a stonemason character who needs a story so that may turn into a crime series or a fantasy book or something else. I'm still noodling on what to do with it all. I'll also be pitching at London Screenwriters Festival again and also continuing to network in the film and TV world. In many cases it's about connections and serendipity, so it's about being out there. Also as an overarching practice. I will keep reading different kinds of fiction. I just read literary sci fi which was just fantastic and I share all my stuff on Goodreads by the way on JF Pen on Goodreads for my fiction reading. So if you want to see what I'm reading. Also on my JF Penn email list I also share recommended fiction. I'm going to keep working with my editor Kristen Tate, who is great at helping me improve my craft, and I will be experimenting with more short stories because my short stories really are much more wide ranging. I'll also obviously keep writing the longer books and keep filling my creative well in order to create sustainably for the long term. So onto the J.F. penn short story collection which will be a Kickstarter. I'm super excited about this and it will probably be it. Well, I think it will almost definitely be my next Kickstarter campaign, my fifth campaign in a fifth genre. Why the hell not? Kickstarter is good for that kind of thing. I currently have eight short stories that are not in print and I'm going to write two more exclusive ones for the collection. I was calling it an anthology, but apparently if it's a single author it should be a collection. So I will be doing a special hardback beautiful print edition as ever, as well as the usual ebook. I have already narrated most of the audiobooks I have and will do the new ones and a paperback and all of the usual things. I love writing short stories and I also love reading them. I've backed a number of collections and anthologies on Kickstarter and it really is a place where you can sell those. People always say, oh, short stories. Difficult to sell, but actually there's a lot of opportunity and there'll be some episodes coming up about this. They're also great to experiment with different fiction ideas without committing to a whole novel. So mine obviously I have some crime ones, horror, dark fantasy, archaeology, or often features, and then science fiction, genetic engineering, that kind of thing, and of course elements of literary fiction. Talking of literary fiction, one of the new stories is inspired by the Hardy Tree and I thought I'd tell you about it because it is a real tree, or at least it was until it fell down in a stor a few years back. It was in St Pancras Old Church near King's Cross station in London, or King's Cross and St Pancras in a similar area. And in the show notes I include a picture that I took in 2017 of the Hardy Tree and then revisiting it as a pile of gravestones in 2024 because the story goes that Thomas Hardy, author of Tess of the d'urbervilles and many other classics, worked at the station in his early years and his job was move some graves which were in the way of the train lines. He arranged them around a tree, but it's unclear what happened to the bones or whatever else he might have found or buried there. So I studied Tess of the d'urbervilles at school, as will many people. If you did English and you're my age and you're British, you probably studied Tess also, Far from the madding crowd and Jude the Obscure was one of the reasons I wanted to go to the University of Oxford, which was Jude's Christminster. And actually I've already written the author's note for the short story that I haven't written yet, because the author's note is actually quite long as to why I'm so fascinated with all of this. But I am definitely pretty obsessed with Thomas Hardy and I've wanted to write about the Hardy tree for a long time. And then when was it? It was only a month or so ago when I went back and discovered that it wasn't there anymore and I was like, okay, I have to write about it because this could now disappear from people's knowledge. That will be one of the exclusive stories in the collection and there'll be another one which is yet to arrive in my brain. So then on to this show, the Creative Pen podcast and my Patreon community. So every year I consider if the show is useful enough to make it worthwhile continuing, but in 2025 I am sure it is still useful. There is so much change coming in the year ahead and I want to keep paddling as we surf the wave rather than drown in it. I also love the interaction we have in my community@patreon.com thecreativepenn and I will be continuing with my demos of tools and sharing business processes and practices and creative things behind the scenes. I'll be doing my live office hours and also articles and all the other things I do as well as the Q and A audio. Remember, you can join us for less than the price of a coffee per month at patreon.com P-A T-R-E-O-N.com TheCreativePenn also double down on being human. I will be doing in person events, speaking and travel, so as ever I will continue to do more in person stuff. We have kept a lot of space this year for some various family things that are happening. So there will be some trips and I'll talk about them later. As ever, you can find pictures on Instagram and Facebook Fpenauthor if I share them, I certainly share everything. I'm doing a library event in Bath which is quite exciting on the 22nd of February. Then I'll be away for my 50th in March. So I will be missing London Book Fair this year and I'll be missing Seville as well because of that. Just that time is just too busy. I will be doing a retreat with Orna Ross just outside Dublin in Ireland in April, which I'm excited about. I went to Dublin in the 90s and I haven't been back so I'm looking forward to going there. And also I've already got my ticket for Author Nation in Las Vegas in November, so that's some of the places I'll be then for health and fitness. I wanted to share this because as you know, I think it's so important for our bodies to sustain our brains. So health and fitness. I will continue to lift weights twice a week and I want to improve my deadlift, my squat and my bench press. I will likely enter the same powerlifting competition that was in September. I did that last year year and I want to improve my weights for the same competition but the main goal is to get stronger and not get injured. I'm also continuing with calisthenics with the goal of being able to do a freestanding handstand. That might sound easy to some of you, but if you haven't done a handstand for many years, trust me, it's not easy. Also on the rings, and I don't like the term but they skin the cat movement on the rings, a one minute dead hang and a pull up. Yes, I want to do a pull up. In my mind it's like Sarah Connor from the Terminator doing pull ups. So I can do variations of all of those right now, but it would be a hell of a progression to get to full movements and obviously doing more than one of these things. But it's an interesting goal and these goals, these calisthenics things, they're more varied than the weightlifting which can be quite linear. So that is it from me. And if you'd like to share your goals for 2025, please do add them in the comments. And remember I am a full time author entrepreneur so my goals are always pretty substantial for the year. This is my full time career. Don't worry if your goals are as simple as finish the first draft of my book as that still takes a lot of work and commitment. Remember where you are on the author journey and take your goals however you like, but I'd love to hear about them. All the best for 2025. Let's get into it. So I hope you found this episode interesting and I'd love to hear your creative and business goals for 2025 or any thoughts or questions. Please leave a comment on the podcast show notes@thecreativepen.com or on the YouTube channel, comment on X at the Creative Pen or email me joannathecreativepen.com and also send me pictures of where you're listening. So back to the usual format. Next Monday we're going deep into writing craft once more. My editor and fiction expert Kristin Tate has a new book out novel, Decoding the Secrets and Structures of Contemporary Fiction and we actually split the episode into talking about aspects many fiction writers get wrong and how to improve, as well as thoughts on writing a non fiction book. So it really is both of those things and also how we can take what we know off the page into more of a community. So that's coming up next week and I will also be back to sharing more news items and no doubt some predictions for the year ahead. In the meantime, happy writing and I'll see you next time. Thanks for listening today. I hope you found it helpful. You can find the backlist episodes and show notes@thecreativepen.com podcast and you can get your your free Author blueprint@thecreativepen.com Blueprint if you'd like to connect, you can find me on Facebook and X hecreative Pen or on Instagram and Facebook Fpenauthor Happy writing and I'll see you next time.